





: '^v.'^^ - 















• .1- /?. 



«*!. 












% >^^ 

v-;^ 

^'^'^, 



\<^^ : 












V^^^.o'^^ \/^^\^^^^ ^V^^'V^''^ 






;* , -^^ ^^ --^iaBf** .*^' '^^ 



*• «^^V '< 



o. 'o . * * A 



**'% • 



<> *'V.' 



\*^^*'y* "*V'?^'.o'* '\''"^^V''* ^ 



"^^^.^^ • 






■' ^*^V 






4^ 

























,• ^0 



iP-^K 



<o^ • 









^-..^^ 









%/ 



^• ^^ 






V- 



ip^ 



I' .K*^ 



• .,0 



,* ... 



**. 'TTT^' .«*' 










^^ '^ 



*> •!.••*- ^ 



• "*..*" - 






*-i./ • 



% \^^.' J'X. °''^^^^' -*"^*- '• 










^^ 



^^ 






















V- 









v' .•j::^'* «> 






,0* -•.. 












^^-n^. '■. 



-' .^ 
























~yeC i^ r i .- -, , '2::iTe> oKW-~r-\cA ^-e. 



HINTS ON SLAVERY. 

FOUNDED ON THE STATE OF THE CONSTITUTION, LAWS, AND 
POLITICS OF KENTUCKY, THIRTEEN YEARS AGO. 



(it^^This article was printed first in the Kentuclcy Reporter, at Lexington, 
Ky.', in weekly Nos., in the months of April, May, and June, 1830 Though 
the interest which may have onc€ attached to them, was purely local, and 
the influence they may have exerted in forming public sentmient long ago, must 
have been confined to the comparatively narrow circulation of the several mland 
newspapers which printed them; yet the transcendent importance of the subject 
they discuss, and the constant and increasing agitation of the public mind tbroug i- 
out this country, and indeed throughout the whole world m regard to it, might 
possibly excuse one even more careless— if Buch a one there be— than the editor 
of this periodical, in regard to the fate of his literary labors, for recalling from the 
silence of the past, productions which the hatred, and malice, and folly of re enl- 
less public persecution and private revenge would not allow to expire. It is hop- 
ed and believed that men of candid and moderate views— (and what other viewg 
were ever either just in themselves or capable of being permanently estab ished r) 
—will find here little to condemn, if they find nothing worthy of being brought, 
a second time, before the public. , , , 

It is somewhat in the nature of a personal duty to his own character, that the 
editor of this Magazine re-publishes this portion of his labors, when acting on a 
theatre very different from that on which he has been for many years engaged. 
Le^al and political studies have long ceased to engage his particular attention, and 
have lost some of their special interest in his eyes. They are noble and useful 
studies; but there are others still more so. These publications, however, occupy 
so importaulia place in the infamous .accusations of that most atrocious of all 
slanderers— iRo&erf Wicldiffe, Sen.-|that it has been judged proper and becom- 
ing to precede any reply to his third published attack", by a re-pnntol that about 
which he has printed so much malignant falsehood. It may be that God would 
thus oblige us to vindicate again opinions, which if they are founded m clear reason, 
and sustained by public necessity, must have a decided interest m the eyes of 
good and wise men; and, seeing the constitutional and legal questions are nearly the 
same in all the slave stales as in Ky., they present the case of slavery in a light 
which, though it is much overlooked, is yet extremely important, if not decisive. 

The Nos. are now re-printed exactly as they were originally published, preserv- 
ing^ even the signature, and the lateral enumeration; minute facts, it is true, but 
yet important enough to be the basis of several falsehoods by I\lr. \V icklille. 
Years of subsequent observation and study would have induced us to modify 
some expressions, perhaps to qualify some opinions. But we have preferred the 
other course; and here, without shame, perhaps it may be allowed to us to say, 
with some emotions of honest satisfaction, present the naked, original, and undis- 
auised, leveller, sans culotte, pettifogger, demagogue, and traitor, which our wise, 
learned, polite, honest, and truthful accuser, Robert Wickliffe, Sen. , represents us to 
have been, in our first estate— to the scrutiny of ail who choose to gaze upon him. 

One thing is at least remarkable; amid all the abuse heaped upon these ISos. by 
Mr. Wickliffe and his handful of followers, during thirteen years nearly, not even 
a pretence has been made of answering the argument they contain, and the moral 
1 



.KsB-T 

they assert. It is comparatively an easy thing to make truth ignominious; it fe^ 
another work entirely, to make it false. It is very easy to pollute a file; it is very 
hard to eat itc^Df) 

No. I. — What are the advantages of domestic slavery ? Such 
an inquiry naturally suggests itself when we consider that in the 
circular address of our Senator in the General Assembly from this 
county, one part of four is taken up in exhibiting the evils which 
must necessarily result from permitting (hose who own no slaves 
to express an authoritative opinion on that subject. 

If I understand the argument of Mr. Wickliffe, it is in substance 
this. After expressing his decided hostility to every effort for call- 
ing a convention to amend the constitution of this state, he pro- 
ceeds to give the reasons of those who favor that measure ; which 
he reduces to three — first, that all officers, judicial and ministerial, 
shall be elective by the people ; second, that judges shall hold their 
offices only for a limited period ; third, " to effect emancipation 
of slaves." The first two are dealt with in a very few lines, brief 
and bitter. The third project is argued at some length. He op- 
poses it on the score of inhumanity to the slaves, by reason of the 
condition into which experience and reason also justify us in say- 
ing they must fall, as freed men, whether they remain among us or 
go to other states. He objects to it also, because the attempt to 
emancipate our slaves would not in fact succeed, but would only 
drive the slave owners with their slaves to the southern states of 
this Union, where he supposes slavery must continue " for centu- 
ries yet to come." He considers the consequences of such a 
migration terrible " to the wealth and capital of the state ;" and 
again adduces the argument from inhumanity to the slaves, as they 
would be removed to "countries where their slavery would be 
more intolerant than it is at present." The general diffusion of 
slaves over extensive portions of the nation, is looked upon as 
tending more to the final emancipation of the race, than gathering 
them in large masses; inasmuch as such a policy would "in time 
efface the distinctive marks of color" — and wear out, rather than 
break the chain of slavery. The wish is expressed that slavery 
should not be perpetual : and the conviction, that Providence will 
point out the means of effecting its extinction. But the opinion 
is stated, that it is better to retain the blacks in slavery than to turn 
them loose among us as freemen: and that any scheme "to be 
effectual, must be general in all the states." Mr. W. then pledges 
himself " at all times to aid in whatever will tend to effect the 
emancipation of the whole slave population gradually." In the 
preceding argument he takes it as unquestionably true, that in any 
constitution which would now be formed, slavery would be abol- 
ished ; and again warns slave-owners throughout the state, "of the 
danger to the tenure by which they hold their slaves" which would 
result 'from a convention.' He refers to the yearly returns of the 
commissioners of tax, and states as his opinion that not " one 
voter in ten, in the state is a slave-holder." " In this state of the 
polls" he asks ' what chance can the slave-holder have to retain 
his slaves, if by a new constitution he is left at the mercy of the 
annual Legislature of the state?' Again, he argues "that while 



"the constitution secures the rights of the masters to their slaves, 
*' the religious societies that abhor the principle of slavery, feel 
"themselves restrained to be silent as to its evils: but so soon as 
*' it becomes a question to be settled in a new constitution, all such 
" feel themselves called on by the principles of their religion, to 
" act, and will act, as their consciences dictate." In this contest, 
already so unequal, he supposes that for three hundred miles along 
our northern border, the non-slave holding states and their presses 
will exert their influence against the slave holder. Amid these 
multiplied evils, it will be too late to repent " that he has from 
prejudice, passion, or whim and ca[)rice given up a constitution 
under which he was happy as well as secure in the possession of 
his property." An appeal " to every sober-minded man of every 
party" — and a serious admonition to the slave-holders in particular, 
to have this subject settled and their final determination known 
before the next session of the General Assembly, closes the argu- 
ment. The paper from which the foregoing analysis is taken, is 
addressed " to the freemen of the county of Fayette," and pub- 
lished in the Reporter of February 17ih, signed R. Wickliffe. It 
has been my object to give a fair, indeed an ample abstract of the 
argument, and that, as far as my limits would permit, in the words 
of the author. I think he will not complain of injustice on that 
score ; or if any has been inadvertently done him, he has some 
reason to know that there are very few persons who would deal 
with his errors more lightly, or receive the truths he would utter, 
with the increased favor derived from high personal consideration, 
more readily than myself. 

I have been myself opposed to the project of calling a conven- 
tion to amend our state constitution ; and have manifested that 
opposition in a public manner. I now see no reason to think, that 
I was then in error. No state that is deeply involved in difficul- 
ties, of whatever kind, can live quietly under any regularly adminis- 
tered government. Nor could it form any scheme of fundamental 
law, which would be the most acceptable to itself in the ordinary 
condition of its aflfairs. Hence it has grown into a maxim, that 
a period of great public excitement is not the best time for amend- 
ing the constitutions of states. Perhaps for fifteen years back in 
this state, it would not have been wise to call a convention. 

Mr. Jefferson has said, he was convinced it would be to the ad- 
vantage of mankind if all nations could call conventions to exam- 
ine into the state of their civil constitutions three or four times in 
a century. Though there may be some eccentricity, there is also 
much wisdom in this reflection. I think no assemblage of persons 
in any nation, who represented the body of the people, has at any 
time met, without producing a salutary effect on the institutions 
of their country. No revolution has ever been brought about by 
the desire of the mass of the people, that did not give them ulti- 
mately a better condition of government. Every attempt to give 
dignity to the common people, the bulk of mankind, by an increas- 
ed participation in the ordering of public affairs — from the seces- 
sion of the Roman tribes to the sacred mount, and as much farther 
back as history will carry us, down to the late convention in Vir- 



ginia, has added more or less to the progress of free opinions. To" 
avoid the force of this reasoning as applied to ourselves, it must 
be shown, that by a fortunate application of all the knowledge of 
mankind in relation to government, and by the most happy con- 
currence of every necessary circumstance, we at last succeeded in 
establishing a perfect constitution. Yet " that the present consti- 
tution is imperfect all admit," Mr. Wickliffe himself being judge ; 
who adds to that admission, the declaration " I would myself make 
alterations in the constitution, were it left alone to me." As this 
precedent condition is not likely to be acceded to, that part of the 
subject need be pressed no fariher. 

Our constitution is an excellent one. In addition to the vener- 
ation which I feel for it as the organic law of my state, under which 
I have lived and was born ; and the hardly inferior regard which it 
challenges as a very high effort of intellectual power, for the time 
in which it was formed, and the opportunities of those who gave 
it birth ; there are personal recollections which commend it in a 
peculiar manner to my admiration. That the lapse of more than 
thirty years, during which the human race has made very great 
advances, should have exhibited some considerable errors of theory, 
and some practical inconveniences in our system, is no disparage- 
ment to those who formed it under a state of things somewhat dif- 
ferent from the present. In the declaration of our national inde- 
pendence (an authority we all bow to) it is asserted !' that mankind 
are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right 
themselves by abolishing forms to which they are accustomed." 
Acting upon this principle, and clinging with parental fondness to 
the instrument they had produced, the gentlemen who formed our 
present constitution, while they recognized the right in every com- 
munity to alter or even to abolish its government, interposed the 
most intricate machinery for the execution of any such projects; 
and by the provision for its amendment have provided effectually 
against any alteration. Let any one consult article 9th, and he 
will see no reason why the most nervous admirer of that instrument 
should dread its fate. If the whole commonwealth with one accord 
were to demand its alteration, it could not be effected in much less 
than three years (a period as long as the cycle of some politicians,) 
from the meeting of that General Assembly which should set vig- 
orously and successfully about its accomplishment. If to this we 
add the repeated votes of the people and the Legislature, twice of 
one, three times of the other, a majority of all who are entitled to 
vote being required at every step, and those who do not vote count- 
ed in the negative, and other obstacles that interfere, it may be 
safely said there is no probability that a convention will be speedily 
called to amend the constitution of Kentucky. 

With this view of the subject, it is not necessary that I should 
point out any portion of that instrument which I might consider 
defective ; the more especially as the propriety of calling a con- 
vention was not the subject I wished to consider. It may be proper 
to observe that the reasoning of Mr. W. on that matter seems to 
me to be destitute of his usual ability, and his array of the opinions 
of his adversaries incorrect. I except of course the question of 



slavery, which I design more particularly to examine. While I 
admit therefore that our affairs are tolerably well conducted under 
the existinor constitution, and believe that it is nearly hopeless to 
attempt its amendment, I have made these general observations, to 
show, that in a period like the present, no danger is to be appre- 
hended from the calling of a convention, and therefore that no 
attention is due to that view of the subject which attempts to make 
the questions of slavery and old constitution, or convention and 
emancipation, reciprocally operate on each other. Indeed it ap- 
pears extraordinary to me that those who hold the opinions avow- 
ed in the circular should not have considered any such mingling 
of debated questions hii^hly injurious to the success of their cause: 
for in that paper itself, it is in substance admitted, that nine tenths 
of this community favor opinions, whose probable success is urged 
as a reason why another set of opinions about which the same 
community is more nearly divided should not succeed. If nine 
tenths of the voters of this state favor emancipation, it seems curi- 
ous to urge them to oppose a convenlion for the reason that a 
convention would also favor emancipation. I have taken a differ- 
ent view of this subject, and been led to different conclusions. 
By making Mr. Wickliffe's argument the foundation of what I 
intend to say, it will afford me an opportunity of remarking on 
certain principles of great importance to us all, in regard to which 
doctrines are inculcated from which I dissent. B. 

No. II. — I had not thought that any individual could be found 
in this Community who would give it as his opinion, that if a con- 
vention were called to amend the constitution of this state, as soon 
as by the present constitution it could be called, that convention 
would recommend the immediate abolition of slavery in the com- 
monwealth. Nor did I suppose that any individual could be found, 
who would give it as his opinion, that any reasonable portion of 
those who favor the call of a convention, are favorable to immediate 
emancipation. No one that I have heard of, ever advocated such 
a plan of abolition as that denounced in the circular, whereby the 
slaves are to be freed and turned loose at once among us. Such 
an idea was never pressed for one moment by any person whatever 
within my knowledge. But, on the other hand, the most ardent 
friends of the American Colonization Society have avowed the 
opinion so clung to and reiterated by Mr. W., that slavery itself 
was preferable to the general residence among us of manumitted 
slaves. This idea, whether true or false, may be said to be almost 
universal. It could not therefore be just reasoning, to suppose 
that opinions are held which all men renounce, and then infer from 
them the magnitude of evils which must be absolutely imaginary. 

It cannot be supposed that the abolition intended to be de- 
nounced was a gradual abolition ; because Mr. W. in the very 
argument expressly declares himself no friend to the perpetuity of 
slavery; expresses his belief that Heaven will put an end to its 
inflictions, and in terms, pledges himself " at all times to aid in 
whatever shall tend to emancipate the whole slave population 
gradually." What scheme different from that, as applied to Ken- 



tiicky, did any one ever advocate ? To emancipate "the whole 
slave population gradually" has been the uniform plan, when any 
thing has been urged on the public attention in this state, and 
which has been achieved in those states, to whose example an ap- 
peal is made to deter others, by its inhumanity to the blacks, fro:T« 
following their career. I confess I do not perceive the value of 
that advocacy, which finds even in the partial success of cherished 
plans, enough of evil to deter all others from similar attempts. 

As to any arguments drawn from the fine theories of persons of 
sensibility, regarding the cruelty of freeing persons who are only 
sufficiently informed to be slaves, I confess I could never see their 
force. A very small portion of acquired knowledge is necessary 
to enable men to sustain the relations of independent communities ; 
or, as we have some reason to know, to govern them. Still less is 
required to fit a man to become a peaceable and industrious citizen. 
In relation'to this particular race we are not without experience. 
The mulattoes of Hayti under Petion and the blacks under Chris- 
tophe have exhibited more knowledge of the principles of free 
government, than most white nations who have peopled the earth. 
The blacks had sense enough to know when Christophe tyrannised 
over them ; and though he was a wise and firm prince, they over- 
threw his government and established one much better. Since the 
union of the Island in a republic under President Boyer (whose 
mother was a Congo negress, and his father a French tailor, an 
odd compound for a wise man,) few governments are better or 
more quietly administered. The colony at Liberia is a model of 
wood order. Nor is there any reason to believe that any of the 
South American states have regretted the decrees emancipating 
their slaves en masse, by which their revolutions have been attend- 
ed. However a sense of duty to ourselves may deter us from 
attempting a sudden and general emancipation while other and 
better hopes remain, it is little better than mockery to place our 
conduct on the footing of humanity to those from whom we with- 
hold the highest enjoyments of nature. He who has lost his liberty 
has littfe else to lose over which humanity can weep. 

Free negroes are very seldom good citizens; and for a reason 
suflTiciently evident ; they are not citizens at all. The law views 
them with constant jealousy, and barely tolerates their existence in 
the country. It can never be otherwise with any degraded caste. 
The aroument proves nothing beyond the admission 1 have made ; 
least of all does it prove that because the blacks are bad citizens 
when free, therefore they are good citizens when slaves. The end 
proposed should be to get rid of both classes, or if that is not 
practicable, then of the worst. For it is not the part of a wise 
man to make no effort to amend his condition, lest perchance, he 
may not succeed at every point. 

It seems to have been perceived that all arguments drawn from 
the sources I have hitherto touched, were without any solid foun- 
dation ; and hence the whole ground is varied, and another and 
incompatible aspect of the case presented. The present argument 
is, that slave-owners will not wait to come under the operation of 
any system of abolition ; but will remove from the commonwealth 



with their slaves ; thus, as it is added, producing consequences 
"upon the wealth and capital of the state (which) are to my mind 
terrible, in driving a large portion of the industry, talents and cap- 
ital from the state." But even here we are met again by the argu- 
ment of inhumanity, that our slaves will be carried by their masters 
to a region where their servitude will be more rigorous than here. 
This is really taxing us too far. For the self-same act we become 
responsible in two opposite and irreconcilable ways : first for the 
cruelty of degrading our slaves by freeing them at home, and second 
for the cruelty of sending the same slaves into a distant and more 
aggravated bondage. This argument about inhumanity is a gar- 
ment thread-bare and utterly past service. 

The address estimates the slave population of this state at two 
hundred thousand souls ; which is I suppose not far from correct. 
If there is any error, it may be a little too high. The voters 
of the state are estimated, by it, to be more than nine tenths 
non slave-holders. Taking that estimate, there are about eight 
thousand voters who own the whole slaves of the commonwealth. 
Allowing five persons to the family of each voter, as an average, 
and the aggregate of the population we should lose, by an effort at 
gradual emancipation, including all ages and complexions, would, 
according to the circular address, be about two hundred and forty 
thousand souls, I suppose our whole population now exceeds seven 
hundred thousand souls; from which the proposed emigration would 
take off about one third, embracing therein all the blacks and some 
thousands of the whites. This statement is merely carried out for 
the sake of distinctness, for a more chimerical notion could not 
readily be propagated. 

The truth is that those who own no slaves have remained quiet 
on this subject. So far as they have been compelled to act, they 
have exercised an astonishing liberality and forbearance towards 
slave owners. If my slave is hanged for burning the mansion of 
my father, who is a slave-holder, then my neighbour who owns no 
slaves is taxed to aid in paying me for the one executed. If my 
slave is hung for killing the son of my neighbour, who owns no 
slaves, his land and other property are taxed to aid in paying me 
for the executed negro. Yet these laws are enacted by a commu- 
nity, in which nine out of every ten persons who had a vote in 
passing them, own no slaves ; and who could not on that account 
be safely trusted to re-model the forms of the government, lest they 
should emancipate the slaves in a body — with which design I un- 
derstand them to be substantially charged in the paper under con- 
sideration. It has been by the owners of slaves that the question 
of slavery has been most maturely considered. And as they have 
examined it, a great change has been wrought in their sentiments. 
For example — Mr. Wickliffe is a slave-holder and resists the 
idea of a gradual abolition of slavery in Kentucky, among other 
reasons, because it would diminish the wealth of the state, and 
drive industry and capital from it : I also am a slave-holder — as 
much below Mr. Wickliffe in wealth, as in consequence and influ- 
ence — but a slave-holder to the extent of my estate, in as large a 
ratio perhaps as hnnself, and I am as thoroughly convinced as I 



can be by facts and reason, that no reasonable plan — nay no plan 
I ever heard advocated tor the gradual eradication of slavery, would 
n)ake this state one dollar poorer during its progress or at its com- 
pletion ; but on the other hand, that all the elements of great national 
wealth and power would strengthen and advance, in proportion as 
slaves and slavery were banished from our land. — I need not now 
argue this wide difference of opinion, but I will illustrate by the 
statement of a proposition. Suppose it to be just for one race of 
men to hold another in perpetual and involuntary slavery, which aU 
our public acts and principles deny. Suppose it to be consistent 
with the clear and upright spirit of Christianity, which I observe is 
held to be the fact, by a gentleman, who, to the honor of being a 
Senator of the United States, adds the claim of membership in the 
church of God. Is such a condition of things advantageous to a 
state ? Does it add any thing to its strength or riches ? Whether 
is it better to have within our bosom, two hundred tl: li-^and free 
citizens attached to our political institutions, and ready to contend 
unto death in their defence; or an equal number of domestic foes 
— foes by birth, by injuries, by colour, by caste, by eveiy circum- 
stance of life, ready to take advantage of every emergency of the 
state to work our injury ? Whether is it better to have two hundred 
thousand labourers, in the most abject condition of ignorance, 
with no motive for toil but the rod, and no rule of conduct but the 
caprice of a master, sometimes indeed humane and just, but some- 
tiines also hardly more retined than themselves ; or an equal num- 
ber of hardy, happy, and laborious yeomanry, such as t!ie heart of 
a patriot would yearn over in the day of his country's prosperity, 
and repose on as upon a rock in the hour of her need ? Vain is 
the philosophy which will allow a man to doubt in choosing between 
such alternatives. B. 

No. III. — In a greater degreee than most other evils, this of 
slavery feeds upon itself and results in multiplied forms of ill. 
The care which in other countries would be bestowed, in better 
living and more bountiful support, on the whites, is in slave coun- 
tries lavished on them ; and they increase faster in proportion. 
Their increase again encourages the emigration from among us of 
the labouring classes of the whites, whose small places are bought 
up to add to the extensive farms cultivated by slaves. Then our 
laws of descent reduce the children of the rich to moderate cir- 
cumstances, who, rather than lose ideal rank, sell out and remove 
to some new country, where in the gradual improvement of affairs, 
they hope to attain their former condition. VVhile by these opera- 
lions we lose the bone and sinew of the state, the slaves remain 
and increase to fill up the space thus created. While this process, 
so destructive to the state, is accomplishing, the slave-owners them- 
selves are only procrastinating a little the day of their own trial. 
As the number of slaves increases, their value must diminish with 
the diminishing value of the products of their labor, in an increas- 
ing ratio. Then comes the competition with free labor from the 
adjacent states. Lexington is now partly, perhaps chiefly, supplied 
with Ohio flour, and to a great extent, with eastern hats, bridles, 



horse harness, boots, shoes, and various other articles of the first 
necessity, which we ought to produce as cheap as any other people. 
Horses have been the favorite production and one of the greatest 
staples of Kentucky ; ypt Ohio horses are sold at a profit by auction, 
in the streets of our villages. All this operates a gradual decline 
in the value of slaves, which will fall lower and lower as they come 
nearer to the number of the whites, until they become themselves 
the chief article of export. Such is now the case with Delaware, 
and part of Maryland and Virginia. The value of the staples of 
the southern states would for sonie years keep up the value of 
slaves. But when the progress of events shall produce the same 
state of public sentiment, I ought rather to say of public necessity, 
there, that is steadily advancing here, and they will no longer 
receive our slaves as merchandise, where would be " the wealth 
and capital," and where " the industry and talents'' of our com- 
monwealth ? Never was there a inore fallacious idea than that 
slavery contributed any thing towards the permanent resources of a 
state. It is an ulcer eating its way into the very henrt of the state, 
and which while it remains, cannot be aff'ected by any change of 
constitution, but would work its effects with unerring certainty 
under every possible form of government. 

Mr. Wickliffe thinks " that while slavery exists at all in the 
United States, it is better that we tolerate it in Kentucky, where 
the condition of the slave is as good as is consistent with a state 
of slavery; than to crowd the slaves into the southern states." 
Again he says that any plan for " effecting the liberation of the 
slaves, to be effectual must be general in all the states." These 
opinions are singularly erroneous and illogical. That a plan to be 
effectual in all the states must be general in all the states, is obvi- 
ous enough. But that a plan to be effectual in Kentucky must be 
general in all the states, is not very apparent. On the other hand, 
that a state which foresees impending calamities, which it is in her 
power and in the power of no other to avert, should yet decline 
providing for her safety because distant and independent states 
choose to deny the existence of the miseries we foresee, and madly 
elect to brave all their horrors, is a course of policy whose wisdom 
may well be questioned. This Union now embraces twenty-four 
slates and three organised territories. Out of these, twelve states 
and two territories tolerate negro slavery. It is admitted by all 
men that the national government has not the smallest power over 
the subject of slavery within the limits of any state. The opinion 
is also prevalent, that in those states whose staple is sugar, cotton 
or rice, being not less than bix or seven states, slave labor cannot 
be dispensed with for a long time to come, if it can ever be done. 
In this circular, Mr. W. stales that slavery will exist in the south- 
ern states for "centuries yet to come." And does a gentleman 
avowedly hostile to the perpetuity of slavery — openly expressing 
his reliance on Providence for the means of its extinguishment — 
and directly pledging himself to co-operate at all times in favor of 
any plan which will even tend to " effect the emancipation of the 
whole slave population gradually" — seriously recommend the post- 
ponement of every effort on this subjpct until after the lapse " of 
2 



10 

centuries yet to come" — twelve scattered sovereignties, (with as 
many added thereto as our whole unsettled territory south of lati- 
itude 40 degrees and 30 minutes north, can make up) shall by a 
grand simultaneous impuls^e achieve so extrusive a revolution in 
society ? In waiting for these events and the efflux of these inde- 
finite centuries, I do not see that even the valuable co-operation 
of Mr. W. could be of any material advantage. Alas! into what 
errors are wise men betrayed. 

Kentucky and no other earthly authority must control this interest 
within her limits. Two out of every seven of her population are 
estimated to be slaves. One out of every 13 of her white popula- 
tion is estimated to be a slave-owner. It may be conjectured that 
one out of every two among slave-owners will be favorable to the 
principle of gradual abolition. Twelve out of every thirteen whiles 
own no slaves, and are therefore in every way interested in getting 
rid of them. It follows then, that not more than one in every 
twenty-six whites, upon a full presentation of the question, could 
upon any reasonable calculation be supposed favorable to the inde- 
finite continuance of slavery in this state, or in other words, to the 
principles of the circular ; for a period designated by "centuries 
yet to come'' does in every political view amount to perpetuity. 
Our white population may now be estimated at a little over half a 
million ; out of whom if the preceding calculations are nearly cor- 
rect, not much more than twenty thousand can be presumed to 
consider themselves interested in maintaining the principles against 
which I contend. In a free government, so small a minority should 
be very cautious in trusting to their own impartiality and justice, in 
a case where they consider their property involved, when the great 
mass of their fellow men differ from them in their views of the 
welfare and grandeur of the commonwealth. 

Connected with this part of the subject, the circular advocates 
the extension of the slave population, for the particular reason that 
it would encourage the amalgamation of the white and black races, 
and thus in the progress of time obliterate slavery, by effacing " the 
distinctive marks of color." The diffusion of slaves would cer- 
tainly tend to augment their value, and by consequence, to add an 
increased ratio to their productiveness ; thus magnifying their num- 
bers, and in an equal degree the difficulties of ultimately getting 
fid of them. But that it would have any tendency to encourage 
the mixture of the two races, there is great room to doubt. I do 
not know that such a mixture would be desirable, to the white race 
at least, even if it could be achieved: and among the blacks, its 
progress wherever it has hitherto operated has been attended with 
the most pernicious effects. From the tendency to this mixture by 
an illicit commerce of the sexes (and no other is ever thought of 
by the whites) the argument against the private morality of slavery 
which has appeared to me most cogent, has always flowed. It may 
be said that in slave countries, the prostitution of the female slaves, 
at some period of their lives, is universal. And what is frightful 
to add, it is not absolutely certain that their condition of abject 
abandonment is always voluntary. A large family of negro children 
having the same mother rarely have the same father. The rights of 



u 

marriage and even its ceremonies are not allowed them by the laws. 
If, surmounting all the ills of their condition and escaping all their 
miserable fortune, a few of them arrive at the possession of social 
enjoyments, their success should hardly be considered a cause of 
congratulation. For the necessities, the vices, and what is some- 
times not less fatal, even the good intentions of their owners, may 
at any moment make them their victims. Yet men of sense and 
virtue are not wanting, who will insist that we may by some unad- 
vised step bring them into a condition so much worse than this, 
that we should subject ourselves to the charge of inhumanity. 
Earth holds no such condition. 

As it is my wish to consider this subject rather in a political than 
a moral point of view, I will pass over what is said about religious 
societies, and their efforts and principles touching the question of 
slavery ; which I do the more readily as if the view I take of the 
constitutional question be correct, such arguments would be ad- 
mitted by those who use them to be without any force, as the whole 
subject would be fully open. Nor do I see that what is said about 
the non-slave-holding states and their presses, requires any reply, 
for the same reason. Such appeals as that made in the conclusion 
of the argument appear to be natural to all politicians. 1 only 
regret that it should have been considered necessary to group in 
such a manner the security of property under the existing consti- 
tution, with the strong implication from the whole course of the 
observations, of its entire insecurity in the hands of those who 
think (in common with Mr. WicklifFe) that the constitution is not 
perfect — or who say (and can avouch Mr. Wickliffe for authority) 
that slavery ought not to be perpetual in this state. 

I shall not make any apology for having so particularly examined 
a part of the circular address of Mr. W. His arguments, while 
they seemed to me to contradict his avowed opinions, went to the 
length of entailing an intolerable national burden on us and our 
posterity to remote ages, by exhibiting the supposed dangers, inhu- 
manity, and difficulty of every plan for its alleviation, except one 
so remote and intricate as to be merely fanciful. I think I have 
shown that his view of the subject cannot be relied on. It is but 
just that I should now present my own. B. 

No. IV. — The plan of African colonization, as exhibited by the 
national society for that purpose, is a very noble conception. Even 
without the aid of the general or state governments, there is no 
reason to doubt but that enough will be done to give civilization 
with all its train of blessings to the Western shore of Africa. As 
a grand missionary operation, it commends itself in a peculiar 
manner to the Christian community, who fail not to discover in it 
the hand of that presiding Providence, which, having permitted 
the wretched African to be enslaved and Christianised, now de- 
mands his restoration that he may Christianise his brethren. But 
that as a mere individual enterprise of benevolence, it can ever 
materially diminish the number of our free negroes, is no longer 
asserted by its most enlightened advocates. If such a condition 
of things were brought about that the energies of the Federal 



12 

Government could act effectually on the subject, it has been suffi- 
ciently shown on several occasions, that in a reasonabfe time and 
at a moderate cost, every colored person in the United States could 
be comfortably planted in Africa. But no one has shown a reason- 
able prospect of arriving at that condition. The first step is to 
have negroes free, before they can be transported. And in taking 
that first step, the general government has not, nor can it ever have 
any power. Several states (our own among them) have recommend- 
ed the Colonization Society in the most urgent manner to the pro- 
tection of Congress ; and the executive of the nation has uniformly 
manifested a favorable disposition towards it. Even if such peti- 
tions should be successful in their object, and the government 
were to remove by universal consent every free negro now in the 
United States, and were to continue removing them as fast as they 
became free, only by the exercise of private benevolence or other 
individual feelings, or private operations ; there is not the least 
reason to suppose, that at the end of any poriod of years, the num- 
ber of slaves would be at all diminished. The whole resources of 
the nation could avail us in that way, only in connexion with state 
efforts by state authority, and not without or in opposition to them. 
If Kentucky should resolve on a gradual emancipation of her black 
population, the general government could do her much service by 
aiding in their removal when freed. If Kentucky is resolved never 
to emancipate them, the removal of every free negro wilt only in 
the supposed condition of society, make room for an equal or 
greater number of slaves. The political moral of the Colonization 
Society is strikingly plain. It has taught us how we may be reliev- 
ed of the curse of slavery in a manner cheap, certain and advan- 
tageous to both the parties. It now remains for those who say 
they are its friends to go whither the light of its example points 
them. 

What I have said recurs with accumulated force. Kentucky 
must achieve her own deliverance, or it will never come to her. 
From the tenor of Mr. Wickliffe's remarks, he seems to think that 
the people of this commonwealth under the present constitution, 
possess no power to regulate the tenure by which slaves are, or 
their descendants ever shall be held to bondage during its contin- 
uance. Such beseems also to infer are the opinions of those who 
advocate the call of a convention. These opinions as to the mean- 
ing and intent of the constitution have extensively prevailed, and 
are in part correct. But I think an attentive investigation will 
satisfy mankind that we do really now possess all the power over 
this subject, which any moderate party would desire to confer — 
which is needful for any useful purpose — or which could be safely 
reposed in any government. A contrary opinion has resulted from 
general inattention to the subject by one portion of our citizens, 
and the continual reiteration of the undoubted correctness of a 
particular construction put on the constitution by another portion, 
who seem to have considered themselves interested in maintaining 
that gloss. 

Our constitution, though it recognises, does not define slavery. 
For any thing contained in it, a white man " without a cross" may 



13 

be a slave in this state, just as well as a negro, or Indian, or mulat- 
to ; although if free he enjoys rights which neither of the others 
can if free. Hereditary slavery is at war with the principles of 
every species of social system. Even the fierce and intolerable 
rule of a military despotism has this to alleviate its sway, that it 
tolerates no subsidiary tyranny. It is at war also with every law 
of nature, except the first and greatest of them all, the law of self- 
preservation. In its inception it cannot be right, though in its 
progress it may become so, by becoming indispensable to the safety 
of the parties. So our constitution appears to have viewed it, and 
made all its provisions regulating it in unison with that sentiment. 
The 7th article, headed " concerning slaves," is devoted to this 
subject. In one of its provisions the Legislature is directed to pass 
laws permitting the owners of slaves to emancipate them, saving 
the rights of creditors, and guarding against pauperism. The act 
of 1798 relating to slaves, that of 1800 to wills, and other enact- 
ments have well obeyed this command. I will not stop to enquire 
whether any furtlier regulations on this head are necessary, as I do 
not consider that the best mode of eradicating slaves from the state. 
Again it is provided that the general Assembly " shall have full 
power to prevent any slaves being brought into this state as mer- 
chandise." Accordingly several provisions have been made by 
law on this subject. The act of 1801 enacts that slaves brought 
into this state for merchandise, or even passing through it, who 
may commit any capital felony and be executed, should not, as in 
other cases of slaves, be paid for out of the public treasury. The 
act of 1815 is strict in the highest degree. I refer to it at large, 
2d digest, page 116^. It prohibits the importation of slaves into 
this commonwealth for merchandise — and imposes a fine of $600 
on the importer, and one of $200 on every seller or buyer of a 
slave so brought into this state , making other apt and proper regu- 
lations for the due enforcement of its provisions. It is greatly to 
be deplored that the negligence of our judges, grand juries, and 
commonwealth's attornies should have suffered this act to remain 
a dead letter on the statute book, when the shocking and disgrace- 
ful traffic which it was designed to put an end to, is regularly and 
openly carried on. Many thousands of offences have been com- 
mitted under this law — and not one conviction has taken place 
under it. Nor is it less a subject of astonishment that the Legis- 
lature of the state, acknowledging the utter depravity of the trade, 
should have been unable, in several years' attention to this subject, 
to give such a shape to the law as would make it effective in prac- 
tice. Nor can this county in particular, find any cause for self- 
gratulation, in the course taken for several years by the majority of 
her representatives on this most important, and I will add, singu- 
larly clear question. One thing at least is certain ; even if I am 
fastidious in supposing that public decency is outraged by allowing 
droves of manacled slaves to be openly imported and driven as 
merchandise along our highways; if I err in supposing that our 
laws are disregarded at every step of the procedure — in some cases 
to the extent of depositing the slaves in the public prisons for safe 
keeping and delivery ; whatever else is doubtful, it cannot be 



14 

denied, that while gangs of slaves are yearly, and many times a 
year brought hither and dispersed through the state by sale, it ia 
absolutely hopeless to reason about plans for the bettering of our 
condition. That a stop should be put to that branch of this do- 
mestic slave-trade, which brings slaves into this state as merchan- 
dise, is the first and indispensable step towards the removal of 
those already here. 

Power is also given to the General Assembly to prevent slaves 
being brought into this from any foreign country, or such as have 
been or may be iniported into the United States from any foreign 
country, subsequent to the 1st day of January, 17S9. Which pro- 
vision was enforced by the act of 1798 then in force, under a pen- 
alty of three hundred dollars for each slave so imported. 

By another clause, the Legislature is delegated with the power to 
make owners of slaves treat them with humanity in all respects; 
its authority going even so far as a forcible taking and selling of 
the slave for the benefit of the owner who should violate the law. 
For what has been done on this branch of the subject I refer to 2d 
Digest, pages ll()3-4, and to the law passed at the session of ]829. 
To say that in all these respects the wise intentions of those who 
formed our constitution have in general been faithfully executed, ia 
a well deserved commendation of the enlightened policy of the 
state for a period of more than thirty years. 

The first clause of the article under consideration is in these words: 
"The General Assembly shall have no power to pass laws for the 
emancipation of slaves without the consent of their owners, or 
without paying their owners previous to such emancipation, a full 
equivalent in money for the slaves so emancipated." 

By this clause it is obvious that without a gross violation of the 
constitution, the Legislature cannot emancipate "slaves" without 
their owner's consent, or without first paying for them. A reflec- 
tion arises out of this phraseology which exhibits in a very striking 
manner the injustice which is done to the non-slave-owners of the 
state, in charging them with a desire to turn free the whole slave 
population in a body. The language is in the alternative. The 
power is therefore given, not where both events concur, but where 
either exists separately. Either consent of the owner, or payment 
of an equivalent without his consent, places the liberty of the slave 
at the disposal of the government. Has any principle in legisla- 
tion been more uniformly revered as true, than that revenue should 
be raised by a tax levied on the luxuries rather than the necessaries 
of life ? Are not slaves luxuries in the most unhappy sense of 
that term ? What then either in constitutional law or in the receiv- 
ed wisdom of ordinary legislation, ever existed to prevent the Le- 
gislature of Kentucky from collecting a sufficient revenue by tax- 
ing slaves, to pay for, manumit and transport a certain proportion 
of young slaves of one or both sexes annually ? A tax on slaves 
not larger than is now levied in Ohio on land, applied judiciously 
in that way, would in a few generations put an end to slavery in 
this commonwealth. Who will assert that such an achievement 
would benefit Kentucky less than her canals will Ohio? But it 
may be thought it is not constitutional to tax slave property more 



15 

than other estate. It has been done from the foundation of the 
government. They are taxed as property ; and they are assessed 
as tilhables. They are valued like a horse: but they are made to 
work the highways in the capacity of men. So it is of other 
things; my cart is not taxed — my friend's chariot is; my mules 
and horses are taxed — my neiglibor's fat cattle and drove of hogs 
are exempt. The power is con)plete and the righl^ to exercise it 
perfect. That it has remained undisturbed is another obligation 
those who own slaves owe to those who own none. Now that it 
is brought to notice, the non-slave-holders have a choice of being 
re-paid as heretofore, in similar cases. 

But a slave shall not be emancipated except in two ways. Who 
is a slave ? The law has said: "No person shall hereafter be 
slaves within this commonwealth, except such as were so on the 
17th day of October in the year 17S5, and the descendants of the 
females of them." 2d Littell, p. ll-J. It might be difficult to point 
out any particular clause of the constitution authorising the fore- 
going enactment. Yet I do not doubt its constitutionality — nor 
has it been at all questioned, that I know of for thirty years. Who, 
however, were slaves in 1785? Our laws and constitution say 
nothing on the subject. The constitution of Virginia is profound- 
ly silent. Could the ordinary powers of government suffice to 
inflict hereditary slavery on any class of its people ? Did any state 
ever attempt such an outrage ? In the general statutes of England 
at any time in force here, do we find this question solved ? In the 
common law of that realm, which abhorred slavery, shall we find 
the recorded doom of involuntary and endless bondage? Let me 
vary the question. Suppose the passage I have quoted from the 
act of 1798, had read thus: " No persons shall hereafter be slaves 
in this commonwealth, except such as are so on the I7th day of 
of October 1805," what provision of our constitution would have 
conflicted with it? Would it have been binding or would it have 
been void ? B. 

No. V. — A man cannot by a covenant bind himself to slavery; 
because no compensation can be equivalent to that with which he 
has parted, his liberty ; and because, whatever was the considera- 
tion pretended to be given, whether small or great, it would pass 
through the slave to his master, who would thus enjoy both the 
thing bought and the price paid for it. This is an absurdity too 
gross to be entertained by any one with whom it would be worth 
the trouble of reasoning. Far less can a man barter away the 
rights of his unborn oflfspring, except in a manner suhject to their 
confirmation or rejection at the years of maturity. In this case 
every reason applies that does in the other, and these in addition, 
that there could be no pretence of necessity over a being not cre- 
ated, and in any case the parent could part with no greater right 
to control his child than he himself enjoyed, that is, till the clfild 
was capable in mind and body of controling itself. Such is the 
doctrine of the American constitutions on the subjects of citizen- 
ship and naturalization ; and our own expressly provides for the 
voluntary expatriation of its citizens, and guarantees that right as 



16 

one of the "general, great and essential principles of liberty." 
But if it were otherwise, in stating the original principles of all 
rational law, we have a right to look bejond all hunian governments, 
and instead of being impeded by their dicta, to bring them to the 
same standard of judgment by which all things else should be 
measured. The law is to be obeyed because it is the law ; but it 
is to be commended only because it is wise and just. 

It can be no less incorrect to apply any arguments drawn from 
the right of conquest, or the lapse of time, as against the offspring 
of persons who may be themselves slaves. For neither force nor 
time has any meaning when applied to a nonentity. He cannot 
be said to be conquered who never had the opportunity or means 
of resistance, nor can time run against one un-born. Those who 
lean to a contrary doctrine, should well consider to what it leads 
them. No rule of reason is better received or clearer, than that 
force may be resisted by force, and whatever is thus established may 
be at any time lawfully overthrown. On the other hand, if error is 
made sacred by its antiquity, there is no absurdity or crime which 
may not be dug up from its dishonored tomb, and erected into an 
idol, around which its scattered votaries may re-assemble. 

I think it is clear that one unborn can in no sense be a slave. 
And such, I do not doubt, is the doctrine of our constitution. The 
laws of man do oft times pervert the best gifts of nature, and wage 
a warfare, idle and impious, against her decrees. But in all such 
cases you may discover what is of the earth and what is from above. 
You may take man at his birth, and by an adequate system make 
him a slave — a brute — a demon. This is man's work. The light 
of reason, history and philosophy — the voice of nature and religion 
— the spirit of God himself proclaims that the being he created in 
his own image he must have created free. 

The General Assembly is invested with power to pay for and lib- 
erate slaves. Suppose a plan on this conception of our constitu- 
tion should be matured which would be fair and lawful. Commis- 
sioners are appointed to have slaves valued and paid for. The least 
costly method, and the most effectual at the same time, would be 
to take and pay for tione but unborn slaves. Pay in advance for all 
the slaves a young female might give birth to, during her whole 
life. Why not? If the chance or probability of a female having 
children and grand-children be such an interest vested in her owner 
that it can be called " slaves ;" then it is such an interest as by our 
constitution the state has the express power and right to take, pay 
for and liberate ; nay it is such an interest, separable from the slave 
herself, that the General Assembly may under certain circumstances, 
prohibit from being imported into the state along with the female 
slave. On the other hand, if it be not such an interest, there is no 
shadow of pretence for saying that the constitution ever meant to 
guarantee to slave-holders that they should hold in servitude the 
descendants of their slaves. 

There is no guarantee in the constitution of Kentucky that slavery 
shall be perpetual in this commonwealth ; on the contrary the right 
is reserved to free those whom the laws shall have previously recog- 
nized as slaves in two kinds of cases. If such a guarantee be not 



17 

expressly stated, or clearly inferable, the received theory on the 
subject of state authority makes the idea of its existence futile. 
For it would put an absolute limit to its power over a third or fourth 
"part of its population, upon a government which knows of no lim- 
itation to its comprehensive authority, except such as is exhibited 
by the instrument which gave it existence, and the limited but par- 
amount authority of the general government. 

All the powers of society reduce themselves to three general 
heads: the power to make laws — that to determine their meaning 
in each casewhat may arise under them — and that to enforce the 
public will when properly ascertained. We call these legislative, 
judicial, and executive powers ; and they are by our constitution, 
vested in the government of the state, in separate departments, in 
as full and complete a manner as they existed in the people them- 
selves. The same instrument excepted certain subjects out of the 
general grant thus made. Over these, no control can be exercised. 
The power to liberate persons in slavery being restricted in part, 
cannot be exercised over the excepted cases. But the power to 
confirm and enforce the laws of nature, anterior to the birth of the 
children of slaves is not excepted. Having passed under the full 
grant, it must now reside in the government in as perfect a manner 
as it could do in the people in a state of nature. Now it is a prin- 
ciple of common sense, sanctioned also by long usage, that what- 
ever operates in derogation of common right shall be strictly inter- 
preted. And if freedom be not as of common right in this country, 
it might be difficult to say what is. If the word ' slaves' is allowed 
to mean all the descendants of a slave, not only by permission of 
the supreme power, but from the necessity of the term according 
to its strict interpretation, it would be curious to enquire who would 
be embraced by a construction that might be called liberal. Those 
who administer the laws regard this principle as sacred, even when 
its particular effect may chance to be hurtful to society. And shall 
it be denied to those who make and may un-make both the laws 
and the rule, when its application is clear and of the last import- . 
ance to us ? 

There is another rule not less just, and even more ancient ; that 
every law shall be so constituted as to favor the liberty of the sub- 
ject. I will not quibble about the words, law and subject. I care 
very little about the subtleties of verbal criticism. I ask for the 
application of the rule not more as a maxim of municipal law, than 
as embodying a. just, clear, and noble precept. And let any one 
ask himself if it favors liberty to interpret the word 'slaves' in the 
clause I am discussing, to mean the distant posterity of a slave? 
What meaning could be given to it more unfavorable to liberty, or 
more variant from the general tone of the article itself, which is 
throughout strikingly humane ? 

Hence arises another rule of common sense; that one part of 
the instrument, when at all doubtful, may justly derive from the 
remainder of it the clue to its general meaning. The general ten- 
dency of this article is in an eminent degree to mitigate the evils, 
whether personal or national, which belong to slavery. It is filled 
with details for effecting the emancipation of slaves — for insuring 
3 



IS 

humanity of treatment towards them from their owners — for dis- 
couraging the traffic in them, both foreign and domestic. And is 
it conceivable that there should be added to provisions breathing a 
spirit of such wise forecast and vigilant humanity, one that must 
needs be so interpreted as to make the captivity our fathers were 
so exact in mitigating, endless and hopeless, and to doom this beau- 
tiful region, for whose glory they were laying a deep foundation, to 
be a prison house forever, and us their children, to be its wretched 
keepers ? 

If any thing were wanting to place beyond a doubt*he construc- 
tion for which I contend, it is found in the very next succeeding 
clause of the same article. It is in these words : 

" They (the General Assembly,) shall h-ave no power to prevent 
emigrants to this state from bringing with them such persons as 
are deemed slaves by the laws of any one of the United States, so 
long as any person of the same age or description shall be continued 
in slavery by the laws of this state." 

There has never been any contrariety in the different states of 
this union, as to who might be slaves. If the first part only of the 
above clause had existed, it would have made the sense complete, 
and would have favored very much the opinions of those who say 
that the General Assembly of Kentucky has no power over this 
subject. By adding the latter part of the clause (that in Italics) it 
is intimated as clearly as it can be done, that the time will come 
when those who may be slaves in other states, will no ionger be 
slaves here. Observe the striking phraseology, " continued in slave- 
ry by the laws of this state.'''' And where does the power reside to 
make " the laws of this state" which shall no longer allow those 
of a certain " age or description" to continue in slavery ? Beyond 
all doubt, in the Legislature of this state. As long as we have 
slaves, emigrants may bring slaves here ; the Legislature being de- 
nied the power to make one set of laws for citizens, and a differ- 
ent set for (imigrants. When, however, the General Assembly shall 
discontinue slavery wholly or in part, emigrants must conform to 
our laws and not be allowed to bring even those who are slaves in 
other states, into this. 

My ideas on this subject are supported by the cotemporaneous 
interpretation of the constitution, and constant acquiescence there- 
in, in a point which I think settles this question. The act of Feb. 
Sth, 1798, in the first section, which has been already quoted, re- 
stricted slavery in this state, to those who were slaves in 1785, and 
the descendants of the females of them. This act was passed before 
the adoption of our present constitution, which was formed in 
1799, and went into complete operation in 1800. But in the first 
paragraph of the schedule of the constitution, it is provided: "that 
all laws of this commonwealth, in force at the time of making the 
said alterations and amendments (to the old constitution) and not 
inconsistent therewith, and all rights, actions, prosecutions, claims 
and contracts, as well of individuals as of bodies corporate, shall 
continue as if said alterations and amendments had not been made." 
The act of 1798 has not been considered "inconsistent" with the 
" alterations and amendments" in the constitution made subsequent 



19 

to its enaction ; but is, and as far as I can learn, has ever been 
considered and acted on as the law of the land. Vet by that act 
the Legislature set free the offspring of all male slaves to the end of 
time, unless they should also be the offspring of female slaves. 

There was indeed a maxim of the common law (of which there 
were enough, bad and good a century ago, to form a thick folio,) 
that the child should remain in the condition of the mother— or, 
as its iarffon has it, partus sequitur ventrem. But it is clear that such 
a rule, so far as it distinguishes between the parents, is aitihcial; 
beincr founded merely in the greater convenience wilh which a 
mother can be identified than a father, and had not the least bind- 
incT obligation in any way on the Legislature, whose law might 
sanction the rule, or reverse it, or abrogate it; just as was thought 
best. That the General Assembly of 1798 may have availed itself 
of the existence of such a rule in the courts of another people, 
which mi<Tht also have obtained some currency in its own, to inter- 
pose its authority for the full establishment of a principle which 
would check in some degree the growth of slavery, is highly likely; 
and is an additional reason for bestowing commendation on a body 
and an era which our citizens delight to contemplate, as among 
the most illustrious in our annals. If the law had been precisely 
reversed and had restricted slavery to the children of male slaves 
only whatever difference in effect might have been produced, it 
would assuredly have been as constitutional then as now. The 
son of a male slave by a free woman, is just the same mixture of 
bond and free, that the son of a free man by a slave woman is. 
The inference from hence is irresistible, fliat the Legislature of 
Kentucky has power to make provision for the prospective eman- 
cipation of all mixed races. But in the constitution, the mixed 
races— the blacks— the mulattoes— all, are alike provided for under 
the term ' slaves.' Whence it follows that the imm ' slaves,' when 
used in that instrument, is to be understood as meaning those per- 
sons held to involuntary bondage, who are in existence at any par- 
ticular time being, and none others. 

If it had been the intention of the convention to put an absolute 
instead of a limited restraint on the power of the government— to 
prevent forever the extinguishment of slavery, instead of guarding 
the interests of owners to a certain extent, a very different phrase- 
ology would have naturally suggested itself, and must have been 
used. Thus; the General Assembly shall have no power to pass 
laws for the extinguishment of slavery. If such had been the pro- 
vision, there had been an end of all dispute. And if such had 
been the design of the constitution, some such sentiment would 
have found a place in it. " Emigration from this state shall not be 
prohibited." Such a provision we find ; and it is clear and distinct. 
«' Slavery in this state shall not be prohibited." This would have 
been a similar and parallel provision on a subject fully as important. 
But nothing like it exists. After forming the constitution and in- 
vestincT the oovernment with those powers residing naturally in the 
people, the convention, acting on a wise and true theory, supposed 
that some of those powers weretoo large and delicate to be en- 
trusted with safety to any government, and that others were not 



20 

necessary to the safe conduct of public affairs. Accordingly the 
10th article of the constitution, embracing 28 sections of precise 
and explicit limitations, profound and comprehensive definitions, 
and most wise and noble principles of freedom, was expressly de- 
signed to curtail the powers of the government. Yet neither here 
nor elsewhere in the whole instrument is a word said which puts 
the least limitation to the power for whose existence I am now 
contending. 

I cannot doubt, then, that I am authorised to give the following^ 
interpretation to the debated clause of the constitution, as embrac- 
ing its plain meaning and fulfilling its intent : 

1. The General Assembly of Kentucky can never emancipate 
any slaves, graduately, contingently, or in any case whatever, 
except, first, with the owner's consent ; or, secondly, having pre- 
viously paid for them a fair price in money. 

2. The General Assembly is bound to pass laws for the emanci- 
pation of slaves with the consent of their owners ; and has full 
power to pass laws for their emancipation without that consent, by 
first paying for them ; having power also to collect the necessary 
funds to pay for them, by general taxation on all things subject 
thereto, or by special taxation of slaves only. 

3. The General Assembly has full power before the birth of those 
persons who by our constitution and laws can be held in slavery, 
80 to modify existing laws as to allow them to remain as they are 
born — free. 

4. It follows, that th» General Assembly has full power so to 
modify existing laws, as to allow the condition of slavery to attach 
at birth to those who can be slaves, only in a qualified or limited 
manner; that is, to provide for the gradual prospective emancipa- 
tion of the descendants of female slaves. B. 

No. VI. — I am not putting forward any novel or extravagant 
opinions. If it is admitted that a man cannot by any possibility be 
born a slave ; if it is allowed that all men are by nature free — all I 
have argued for follows of necessity. Who will deny that princi- 
ple ? It is asserted as the very first self-evident principle in the 
Declaration of our Independence, and is the foundation principle 
of that immortal argument. It is reiterated in express terms in 
nine of the American constitutions. It is a sentiment consecrated 
to our country, coeval with its national existence, and illustrated 
and enforced by the proudest monuments in its history. Has any 
American constitution denied it? When truly interpreted, I deny 
that any has. That our own has not, it has been my effort in these 
papers to show. If any one will prove that I have misinterpreted 
the constitution of Kentucky, he will establish at the same moment 
that that instrument has asserted what is not true in fact — that it 
has upheld what is indefensible in reasoning — that it has establish- 
ed what is fatal in practice — that it is inadequate to the exigencies 
of society — and should on these accounts be amended with all 
convenient despatch. Let those who oppose a convention reflect 
before they drive from them, those who have held many opinions in 
common with them. 



SI 

The time and manner of exercising the power which I think I 
have clearly shown to reside in our state Legislature, is certainly a 
very delicate question. The extent of its exercise will probably pre- 
sent only a single, and that a very plain question. If any thing is 
ever done, it will be undertaken with the direct intent, and as part 
of a plan for eradicating slavery from the state altogether. It would 
be useless to set out with any other object: and the warmest sup- 
porters of such a measure would scarcely find any sufficient reason 
to lend their aid to mejisures which should propose partial or tem- 
porary expedients. When the work is begun, it will begin at the 
root, and make root and branch work of the whole matter. When 
to begin and how to begin are the questions of difficulty, which 
require wisdom and experience in our rulers, and a general ac- 
quaintance with the subject, and great mutual forbearance among 
our people. I will not at this time discuss these questions. They 
may no doubt be safely left to the disposal of those whose particu- 
lar duty and interest it will finally become to settle them. Nor 
will they be without the light of more than one example, in the 
history of our sister republics, of a people successfully and peace- 
fully achieving just such an amelioration in the condition of society, 
as they would aim at. To the practical good sense of my fellow 
citizens, I freely submit them for decision. 

There are however one or two points slightly touched or only 
hinted at in what I have said, which may have an influence on the 
opinions of some persons, to which I wish more particularly to 
direct attention. Some are of opinion'that an attempt to devise a 
plan for the future gradual extinguishmenj of slavery, would greatly 
diminish the wealth and resources of the commonwealth; others 
fear the serious depopulation of the state ; while others predict 
still greater evils from the vast accumulation of liberated negroes. 
It must be apparent that all these forebodings have no better foun- 
dation than this assumption — that whatever scheme shall be ulti- 
mately adopted will be wholly ineffectual to compass its own ends. 
Such an assumption is contradicted by the known character of our 
people, and by the experience of others on this subject. Such fears 
are moreover in opposition to well established facts, and to all just 
reasoning. 

It may be safely asserted that if a fair and reasonable plan was 
adopted on this subject, when the period should arrive for its final 
accomplishment, there would be more free white persons in^this 
state, than the united black and white races would have amounted 
to at the same time if nothing had been done in the matter. Emi- 
gration from a state has rarely produced any sensible diminution in 
its population. Could any man tell by statistical tables, out of 
what European nations the thirty or forty millions of Europeans 
and their progeny now on these American continents, emigratev 
in the last three centuries ? Their population has augniented in 
defiance of the most bloody wars, as rapidly as in former periods, 
and yet here are perhaps forty millions of their race withdrawn in 
three centuries ! Can any man take our national census and tell 
where the million of whites who now people Ohio came from in 
the last forty years ? Almost the whole population of the valley of 



22 

the Mississippi has been withdrawn in fifty years from the other 
portions of this Union, and yet those other portions have continued 
to augment rapidly and steadily. Indeed it is a very singular fact, 
and one that shows in a strong point of view, the utter groundless- 
ness of the opinions I am now combatting, that those states along 
the Atlantic from which the fewest emigrants have gone, have added 
the smallest ratio of increase to their former numbers. There are 
those who scatter and yet increase, as we know from holy writ; and 
here may be found an illustration of taking from those who have 
not, even that they seem to have, and emptying it into the lap of 
those already overflowing with abundance. So singularly clear is 
the principle I am stating, that hardly one example can be found 
of a nation locating the permanent seat of its empire in the native 
land of its inhabitants. Every people of which we have any ac- 
count, has been a nation of emigrants: some by peaceful acqui- 
sition of unoccupied regions — some by purchase — most by the 
power of their victorious bands. Driven out by the wants of too 
dense a population — fleeing from the various calamities by which 
every region has at some period been visited — persecuted children 
of God— oppressed disciples of liberty— the love of gold and the 
still more unappeasable lust of conquest— every feeling in short 
has operated to make men wanderers, and all nations colonisers. 

Withdraw any reasonable amount of population from a settled 
country, and in an astonishingly short period, the increased vigor of 
production stimulated by the greater facilities of subsistence and 
increased comfort, will fill up the space. Nor does it stop here. 
A vessel launched into the ocean will make its shock be felt in the 
agitations of the waves to a long distance from the shore. A heavy 
body in its descent along an inclined plane acquires a velocity so con- 
tinually augmented that it will ascend to a great height the adjacent 
hill. And so it is with nature in all her operations. The principle of 
production once set in operation with a vigor beyond its common 
energy will not suddenly be arrested when it has reached the former 
bounllary ; but by violent contests with the barriers vyhich surround 
and depress it, must gradually find its impassable limits. The pop- 
ulation of the United States increases about double as fast as that 
of most European nations, and more than three times as fast as the 
Asiatic nalions with whose condition we are acquainted. 

Nor on the other hand is any thing to be apprehended from a 
source which is m.ade the ground of a contrary objection. If the- 
white race will so speedily supply any vacancy created by the trans- 
portation of slaves by their owners, or the voluntary removal of 
free nefrroes— why may we not dread the equally rapid increase of 
free ne°crroes themselves ?. This depends on other principles, and 
is equalTy clear. It would not be possible to adopt any gradual 
system of emancipation of the blacks, which at its completion would 
leave as many free negroes as there were slaves when it began. 
Nay I doubt not the longer the system would be in operation the 
greater would be the diff'erence between the number of slaves at 
its oricrin and free negroes at its close; the free negroes being 
found°perpetually to decrease in number. The direct tendency of 
any system on this subject, is to diminish the black race, whether 



23 

l)ond or free, and substitute it with a free white race, superior in all 
respects. That has been the uniform result wherever the experi- 
ment has been made on a race with which the prejudices of soci- 
ety prevented it from amalgamating; as is clearly established by 
the examples of several of the most prosperous states of this Union. 
Let me illustrate : Say that a law were passed, providing that all 
the children of female slaves who shall be born in this common- 
wealth after the year 1835 should be free at 21 years of age ; all so 
born after 1840, should be free at 16 years of age ; and all so born 
after 1856 should be free at birth. Let us see how it would operate. 
All slaves now alive would continue slaves for life ; in regard to all 
born after that period and before 1856, there would be a qual- 
ified and limited slavery. The effect would be, that all negro chil 
dren born after 1835 would be less valuable to those who Qwned 
their mothers. Therefore much fewer would be born, and of those 
born much fewer would be raised than now. In consequence of 
the value attached to slaves now, they are well fed and clothed, 
carefully attended in sickness, well provided for in infancy, and 
though roughly yet bountifully nurtured. In consequence, a healthy 
negro woman will have twelve or fifteen children, the most of whom 
will grow up, and many live in health and vigor to seventy years 
and upwards. This all happens of course out of pure humanity; 
which, however, rarely extends itself to the suffering families of 
whites in the neighborhood of the better fed and better clad slaves. 
But let that pass. Let slaves be no longer considered valuable as 
hereditary estate, and such a change in the whole theory and prac- 
tice of owners will take place, that the female will give birth to only 
three or four puny children, not half of whom will be raised : and ex- 
posure, casually, and feebler constitutions will cut off the survivors 
at half their former age. If we add to these the number that would 
be sold out of the state by owners who would not choose to retain 
them and abide the system, and the increased number that would 
probably be emancipated before the time ; it is hardly saying too 
much to assert, that those who would actually go free under any plan 
that might be adopted, would constitute a very small fraction (per- 
haps not a twentieth part) of the number of slaves at its origin. 

During this process, the race of poor and laboring whites, receiv- 
ing that just protection, aid and encouragement of which they 
have been so long deprived, and which our humanity has so long lav- 
ished on the blacks, and no longer forced to emigrate to avoid 
the hardships and mortifications incident to their condition in a 
land of slaves, would find in the increased employment, more 
comfortable living and greater respectability of their condition, 
(each operating as a bounty on production) every indispensable 
ingredient in individual prosperity. Let us suppose that these 
changes are taking place in a gradually improving state of society, 
and there could no longer be any doubt that our state must 
under such auspices, reach a very high degree of wealth, power 
and cultivation. g. 

No. VII. — It is useless to argue a priori when experience has 
placed a proposition beyond dispute.— Such is unquestionably the 



24 

case in relation to the increase of free negroes by ordinary genera- 
tion. They are less prolific than the whites, and less so than the 
slaves of their own race. It needs must be so. A very corrupt 
population cannot possibly be a prolific one. To say that free ne- 
groes are the most abandoned of our population, is equivalent to 
saying that they increase more tardily tlian any other. Such is the 
uniform fact in all the states. Although twelve states have liberat- 
ed their slaves, or never tolerated slavery, the free negroes now in 
the United States amount to only about one in sixty of the whole 
population; while the slaves are as one in eight of our whole pop- 
ulation, although only twelve states tolerate slavery. Nature will 
not allow us to be tormented by the vices, and afflicted at the same 
time by the rapid accumulation of a race so worthless. It is always 
the case with a degraded caste if left to its own efforts. It seems to 
hang on society in a sort of loose and disconnected way, which a 
steady effort will always throw off. History is full of curious facts 
illustrative of this subject, the most extraordinary of which per- 
haps, relate to the race of beings called Bohemians, Egyptians, 
Gypsies, and by various other appellations, who inundated Europe 
like a flight of locusts, and disappeared, leaving to this hour no 
certain knowledge of the country whence they migrated, or the 
end to which they came. 

In the 1st vol. of the Memoirs of the French Royal Academy 
of Medicine, there is a paper contributed by M. Yillerme, from 
which the following facts are drawn. In the 1st unondisment of 
Paris, with a population of 50,000 souls, and paying taxes on prop- 
erty to the amount of six millions of francs, the entire mortality, as 
appears from official returns, was in a given year, 1 in every 41 of 
the inhabitants. In the 12th arrondisment of the same city, with 
a population of seventy thousand sould, and paying taxes on prop- 
erty to the amount of two millions and a half of francs, the entire 
mortality in the same year was one in every twenty-four of the in- 
habitants. In some of the wealthy departments, such as Calvados, 
Orne and Sarthe, the deaths are only one out of fifty of the inhab- 
itants in ordinary years. In the wealthy departments, only one 
infant in five dies under one year old : in the poorest, one in three. 
In one year there were taken into the hospitals of Paris about 1600 
seamstresses sick, of whom two in sixteen died ; about 800 jour- 
neymen shoemakers, of whom two in fifteen died ; about 1300 
dog-shearers, boot- blacks, door-keepers, beggars, &c., of whom 
one in four died. From which it appears, that by greater mortal- 
ity among the children — by worse tending, in sickness — by more 
numerous and violent diseases — and by greater average' mortality, 
the poor increase much more slowly than those who are better pro-' 
videdfor; and this even among persons of the same race, and 
under the same government and laws. Let them be of different 
races, one degraded and the other cherished — under different con- 
ditions of society, and with different hopes and motives, and we can 
well imagine the rapidity with which one will grow upon the other. 

We must take man as we find him. Though we have neither 
the right nor the disposition to exterminate any race that God has 
created —neither are we called on, by any artificial condition of 



25 

things to stimulate the productiveness of one that is degraded, in 
an unusual degree. The lessons of experience may be sometimes 
painful, though full of instruction. 

It may be said that the slave-holder would not partake in the 
prosperity which most persons admit would be augmented by the 
removal of our slaves ; and that he would find in the general wel- 
fare no adequate compensation for his own ruin. I am notable to 
see the injury to the slave-owner likely to arise out of any reason- 
able project for abolishing slavery in this state. Say somn such 
plan were adopted as that I have heretofore alluded to. Every 
slave we own would be secured to us as we now enjoy them, for 
the same period — their lives. That will, no doubt, be as long as 
we could enjoy any thing in this world ; for scarcely any owner 
outlives the average lifetime of his slaves. Even beyond ihis, a 
period of some years in advance would be given, during which all 
who are born would be slav«>s also for life. Thus far men, or during 
our lives and their's, no difference would be produced in our situ- 
ations. We might still retain them and enjoy their labor; or stil 
them and enjoy their value ; or liberate them, at our pleasure. 
Slave labor is even now so little valuable in this state, that many 
persons whose interests or aitnchnieiits retain ihein here, locate 
their slaves in the lower country, and employ them in the culture 
of more valuable &ta|)les. We should have •20 or 30 years lo look 
about us before any injury could accrue to us ; and if we should 
finally resolve lo remove, we shouhf have half of this large and 
beautiful empire, out of which to select a resting place, amid a 
people like ourselves in their language, religion, laws and institu- 
tions of society. Added lo all this we should have this consolaiirm, 
and it must be a lofty one, iluit our brethren who differed from us 
in this great plan of operaiious, are honestly Inboring alter the 
grandeur of a conimonweahh dear to us all, and that their labors 
are of a character, which, whether practicable or nol, needs must 
command our fervent benedictions. 

That estate which fur a period of twenty or thirty years a man 
may enjoy without siiiit (jf waste, or any after accouniabdiiy. is, 
for all practical purposes, equal to an estate forever. If we add to 
this the right during those twenty or thirty years to di-|)ose of the 
estate and ret.iin the proceeds forever, it is idle to talk about a larifcr 
or more entire interest. There can be no force therefore?, in iho.-e 
arguments which would bring the children, born or ex|tec.ied, of 
slave-owners, into this (ii?cussion as classes of persons lo be im- 
poverished in the progress of such plans. I suppose tliat slaves 
are not the kind of properly by which even those win> own thetn 
would prefer to enrich their children. And surely twenty years are 
amply sufhcient to enable us to commute one estate for another. 
Our laws of descent give a diflTerent turn to all such reflections. 
Few persons own slaves whose ancestors belonged to theirs. 
Wealth rarely remains three generations in a right line of de.-cenl. 
This fact should cut up at once all selfish interests from our hearts, 
and make us look, in the settlement of all general questions, only to 
the common interests of mankind, amid the great tnass of whom, our 
children, or at the farthest, our grand-children, must take the denuu- 
4 



26 

cialion against our first parent, which has been perpetuated upon 
nine-tenths of his race. "in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread." 
There is an idea which has pressed most heavily on my mind, 
that I will sugoe>t, before closing a discussion which has grown to 
such an unexp^ected length.— Men will not always remain slaves. 
No kindness can soothe the spirit of a slave. No ignorance, how- 
ever abject, can obliieratp the indelible stamp of nature, whereby 
she decreed man free. No cruelty of bondage, however rigorous, 
can suppress forever the deep yearnings after freedom. No blight- 
in<T of deferred and crushed hopes will so root them from the heart, 
that when the sun shines and the showers fall, they will not rise 
up from their resting place and flourish. The stern Spartan took 
thedaoger and the cord. With what avail? The wiser Roman, 
as he ''freed his slave, against whom no barrier was raised in the 
difference of complexion, allowed him to aspire to most of the 
rights and dianities of citizenship, and ail the privileges of private 
frrendship. Yet the annals of the empire show that this was hardly 
an alleviation of the calamity. The slaves of the Jews, the rem- 
nant of the conquered nations of the Inn.l, for a louff course of 
a'Tes were by turns their victorious master, and menial servants. 
Here is no doubtful experience. History sheds on this subject a 
broad and steady light, and sheds it on one unchanging lesson. Do- 
mestic slavery cannot exist forever. It cannot exist long quiet and 
unbroken, in any condition of society, or under any form of gov- 
ernment. It mav terminate in various ways ; but terminate it must. 
It may end in revolution ; bear witness S:ui Domingo. The Greek 
and the E^nptian took other methods, effective each if fully acted 
out and dlfferint/ only in the manner of atrocity. It may end in 
amalaamaiion— a base, spurious, degraded mixture, hardly the least 
revolTina method of the three. Or it may be brought to a close by 
gradualTy Mipplanting the slaves with a free and more congenial 
race in «ome such manner as 1 have attempted to illustrate. It is 
an American scheme, matured and fully executed in several of our 
mo-t prosperous stales. That it is effectual, let their examples tell : 
that it is wise, let the relative conditions of New York and Virgi- 
nia answer; that it is humane, if by humane we mean that which 
Huaments the sun. of human happiness, let him declare, who living 
aiii'.nc/ Ireemeu, owns and a„verns slaves. 

I Inve eiKbavoreil to lo<d< at this subject merely as a political 
Sieculation, relinqnishiiig every advantai/e which might have been 
lleriv. d lr..m oiher and most cosrent aspects. If those who agree 
wiih me think that in doinir this 1 have failed of doing justice to 
onr cause. I appeal to iheir can.lor when I say, that if fa.lit.g in 
every point, 1 shall have pointed the way in which some abler hand 
may viiulicate the constitutional power for which I contend, I shall 
have achieved .T.ore for this cause, which I contend is that of rny 
country's c/lory, than many who have preceded me. To those who 
differ with me, on the other hand, I have given the best pledge of 
the depth of my convictions of our common interest and duty, by 
presenting such views only as they will admit are legitimate, and 
canvassing the matter in that aspect only, on which they have ^n 
taught to repose as impregnable, ^ .^ '^ 






^-'^. V 



"^ *•"* \v .. ^ 






^vrvc,*^' 



-^^^^^ 



'vP^- 



^•' **% --UK-* /''^ "••^^'' **'% •. 



/\-:^;r.^^^. .c«'* 







*«'J4^. ^ 







.^^ . 



jP-t!,, 







.^^°^ 









>. 'e.. A^ 









j°-n 













■v..'°'«;-X.. 



L*^ .».;•..% 



'^o' 



-oK 



k- ^^0^ 






9^-. *.,.<- ♦ 

V'V 
.^'C. 



'>\'ji^.\: y\:i:£' 



*^^*' • 


















v., -,-^mfc .,*^°- 



»°-v 






v- 



v" •r;^'* <^. 






'JK' ^^...^ : 



■' >„c^* 



:^" > 



f' "> 



*^..^* -' 



:* J^ o %7;i^. 



* '«#^ 



\^ .. '^ "•" A."" "^^ 









0' •IV' ^?' 









V ..i:^'. •<?, 









^•^^ 









%/ •* 

^^^. 



\/ 












<^*. ♦•- 









'^/>«b- 



v^^ 



•• #% '--m^s ^^'^-- 









7o jP*^ " 



^' .^^°^ 















'^oV^ 



'^^ ..^ 



^^-^^^ •.- 



•^-^0^ 



^ ■'^msc, \^j>* :'^£', %^^^^ ..^•. \ 



-.* 










f>^^ 









